The idea of community refers to a set of individuals. A group of people or animals can form a community as long as they have some element that unites them. Thus, the Hispanic community has in common a language, a culture and a history and a group of apes make up a community because they share kinship ties and together they constitute a clan.
Different ways of understanding the concept
Human beings are social by nature and normally the type of society in which they live is heterogeneous, since people of very different social conditions, races and inclinations coexist in it. In this sense, we could speak of a country as a community of citizens. On the other hand, the people who live in a specific territory make up a community, since they have cultural and social ties that unite them.
Certain collectives isolate themselves from plural society and create their own communities
This is what happens with some ecclesiastical orders (for example, the order of the Augustinian Recollects), with certain groups of religious inspiration (for example, the Amish) or with groups that share a way of life (for example, the hippies).
Hobbies and sports are usually accompanied by the creation of communities (fans of a football team or stamp collecting clubs).
Currently there are communities in a virtual sense (groups of friends through whatsapp or social networks). The concept of virtual community has incorporated a new dimension of human groups linked by their affinities and interests. The virtual world has multiplied the possibilities of human communities.
Communist ideology draws heavily on the idea of community. According to the communist approach, humanity must aspire to a life in which there are no inequalities. Anarchist ideology also has a community criterion (we could synthesize it with the idea that everything belongs to everyone). There are ideological approaches that are opposed to the community and, in fact, liberalism defends individualism against any collective temptation.
Professional groups create institutions that bring them together in a cohesive way (for example, trade unions or professional associations).
We have an individuality but at the same time we live in a community dimension
In this sense, Aristotle already in the lV century BC. C claimed that man is a social being and that only animals or gods can live on the fringes of society.
Our belonging to a community implies a form of organization, management, conflicts and the establishment of a regulation that facilitates the personal relationships that are generated.
There is general agreement in affirming that democracy is the most appropriate form of government for coexistence within a community, that this system is based on the principle that all citizens have the same rights and obligations and, therefore, live on an equal footing before the law.
The feeling of community allows human beings to overcome our individuality. In fact, the concepts of clan, nation or culture are based on a sense of the collective, that is, of what we share and that allows us to be part of a group.
The concept of community is found in the natural sciences (for example, an ecosystem as a medium in which species are related) or in the social sciences (anthropologists study social clans and sociologists analyze the structures of certain groups).
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